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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Help Save Wildlife threatened by the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds of species of wildlife call the Gulf home. Dolphins, manatees, countless fish species as well as nesting birds and sea turtles - are at risk in the Gulf due to the oil spill. For many of these precious creatures, the threat is deadly. Your help is needed to save them. Please donate by texting "WILDLIFE" to 20222 & donate $10. You can also help threatened wildlife by sharing this message with your friends and followers.
To donate online: https://online.nwf.org/site/Donation2...

When the oil stops gushing, the National Wildlife Federation will be there to help wildlife. Help us help them!http://www.nwf.org/oilspill Text "WILDLIFE" to 20222 to donate $10 to Save Wildlife in the Gulf.

These videos showed up on youtube today and while we was all sleeping this is what was going on,check out the videos and see for yourself . thanks for viewing I thought this was important info that everyone needed to see.The man taping this footage sounds extremely tired as he is in shock this is taking place.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

ST. PAULS — April Lowry knows she has some fences to mend and challenges to meet as she takes over management of the Robeson County Animal Shelter. But she also believes that she has what it takes to run the facility efficiently.

“I’ve run dog kennels all of my life,” said Lowry, who took over management of the shelter on Wednesday. “I’ve also run animal rescue operations.”Lowry, 27, says she approached Bill Smith, director of the county Health Department, about becoming the shelter’s manager after former manager Jeff Bass asked to be transferred to another county department.“I have a passion and love for animals,” she said. “I want to find as many homes for animals as I can.”

Lowry, a Robeson County native, takes over a shelter that has been criticized by animal rights activists as a facility where the staff routinely mistreats animals and makes it difficult for rescue groups and others to adopt animals. County health officials have charged her with the responsibility of implementing new polices that they believe will improve conditions for animals at the shelter, while at the same time making it easier for adoptions to take place.

Lowry said that she has already met with staff to discuss how the shelter should operate.

“The few days I have been there, I have found them to be doing a good job. They are compassionate,” Lowry said. “I’m a fair person and I have been explaining to them what needs to be done so that things will be easier for everybody.”

Lowry said that once two new employees are hired to oversee adoptions and volunteers, there will be better communications between the shelter and rescue groups, making adoptions easier.

“I will then be out in the kennel working full-time for animal welfare,” Lowry said. “Those seeking to adopt animals will be working directly with me. I will be the one to greet them when they come to the shelter and show them the animals that are up for adoption.”

Lowry emphasized that her dealing directly with the public will allow other shelter staff to focus on their jobs, including keeping the shelter clean and seeing that all animals have food and water.

On Friday, the new manager was busy developing an Excel spreadsheet that will include the number of each animal, as well as all identification information. She also was putting together identification collars, with individual animal numbers, and numbering kennels.

Lowry said she will consider all sides when making decisions on issues aimed at improving shelter operations and adoptions. But her decisions, she added, will always be to do “what is most important for the welfare of the animals.”

“I will follow state and county regulations, and work outside the box within these guidelines,” she said.

Lowry is currently trying to find foster homes for a number of cats that are housed at the shelter.

“We have a big cat problem, and I’m trying to find as many foster homes for these animals as I can,” she said. “We need to educate the community to the importance of having their animals spayed or neutered.”

Lowry said that she expects improvements in shelter conditions, as well as the new system for adopting animals, to come about “quickly.”

“I’m proud to be working for the county,” she said. “Through my work at the shelter I can give back to the county in a positive way.”

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — BP and the Coast Guard sent oil-scooping skimming ships in the Gulf of Mexico back to shore Tuesday because nasty weather from Tropical Storm Alex churned up rough seas and powerful winds.U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Dave French said all efforts had been halted for now off the Louisiana coast. Efforts also had been halted off the coasts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

French said workers were using the time off the water to replenish supplies and perform maintenance work on equipment."We're ready to go as soon as conditions allow us to get those people back out and fighting this oil spill," French said.The loss of skimming work combined with 25 mph gusts driving water into the coast has left beaches especially vulnerable. In Alabama, the normally white beaches were streaked with long lines of oil, and tar balls collected on the sand. One swath of beach 40 feet wide was stained brown and mottled with globs of oil matted together.Tropical Storm Alex was projected to stay well away from the spill zone before possibly making landfall as a hurricane as early as Wednesday just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. But its outer edges were causing problems out in the Gulf.Wayne Hebert, who helps manage skimming operations for BP, said all nearshore skimmers were idled off the coasts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi."Everyone is in because of weather, whether it's thunderstorms or (high) seas," Hebert said.Waves were as high as 12 feet Tuesday in some parts of the Gulf.The surging waves and nasty weather make skimming work unsafe and ineffective, and also can mangle oil-soaking boom.The Coast Guard had to evacuate workers and equipment from coastal areas in Terrebonne Parish because of tidal surges that could cause flooding, French said.

The only vessels left in the water are being used to capture or burn oil and gas leaking from the well and to drill two relief wells that officials say are the best hope for stopping the leak for good.Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's point man for the spill response, said this round of rough weather wasn't expected to affect the drilling operation. Nor is it expected to halt the tanker sucking up large quantities of oil through the cap on the well, or a second vessel that is burning off hundreds of thousands of gallons at the surface.Ten boats that had been removing oil from the coast of Alabama sought shelter in the protected waters of Mobile Bay or Perdido Bay, and a flotilla of vessels that had been trying to prevent oil from entering the pass into Perdido Bay were gone. In Mississippi, four skimmers were riding out the storm beside Petit Bois Island, Hebert said.Cleanup crews fought the winds and showers with empty bags blowing across the sand occasionally and the tops of canvas shelters flapping in the breeze.Hebert said it was impossible to say when the work might resume."I don't control the weather," he said.Pulling boats and crews off the water could cost precious time, said Nancy Kinner, co-director of the Coastal Response Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Equipment has to be stripped down, packed and protected from the force of the storm, and then has to be reassembled and deployed again, she said.Despite the setbacks, the rough weather could give nature a hand in breaking down crude from the spill that's spilled as much as 137.6 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.

High waves could help break up the patches of oil scattered across the sea. The higher-than-normal winds that radiate far from the storm also could help the crude evaporate faster.As Alex steamed closer to land, a hurricane warning was posted for the Texas coast from Baffin Bay, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south to the mouth of the Rio Grande river; and for an additional 225 miles (360 kilometers) south to La Cruz, Mexico. Except for the border area itself, both regions are lightly populated.

Workers along the South Texas coast were clearing drainage ditches, filling sandbags, positioning heavy equipment and water pumps, and preparing emergency shelters. Some cities also handed out sandbags to residents and urged people to make preparations.Forecasters said rain from Alex would keep falling on southern Mexico and Guatemala into Tuesday, raising the possibility of life-threatening floods and mudslides.All of the uncertainty of what Alex and other storms could do to BP's containment effort gave new urgency to the company's efforts to make its operations at the well as hurricane-resistant as possible.The company said it hopes to install a new oil-capturing system by next week that would allow BP to disconnect the equipment faster if a hurricane threatens and hook it back up quickly after the storm passes. Right now, BP would need five days to pull out if there is a hurricane. The new system being developed, which uses a flexible hose, would cut that to two days.The containment system now in place is capturing nearly 1 million gallons per day from the well, which is spewing as much as 2.5 million gallons a day, according to the government's worst-case estimate.Meanwhile Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden was visiting officials and residents on the Gulf Coast.___

Kevin Reed, 36, of Pensacola breaks down and weeps upon seeing the oil-defiled shores of Pensacola Beach on June 23, 2010. Reed's father taught him to swim in these waters, and Reed just taught his five year old son to swim here. "This will never be the same," he says. "I'd like to take the CEO of BP and jam his face in that pile on the beach."

Kenny Wood, 44, of Pace, Fla., cleans oil from Pensacola Beach on June 24. He isn't part of a BP work crew and isn't getting paid anything to be there. "Eventually I might get with one of them crews," he says. Asked what drove him to come pick up tar balls he responed "This is our beach, man."

A trench dug by a group of USF geologists shows a continuous layer of oil approximately six inches beneath the surface of Pensacola Beach near Gulf Islands National Seashore on June 24.

University of South Florida coastal geology graduate student Katie Brutsche, 25, digs a trench on Pensacola Beach exposing a vein of oil buried under approximately six inches of sand on June 24. According to a group of USF geologists, the layer of oil was buried by an overnight tide Wednesday night.

A trench dug by a group of USF geologists shows a continuous layer of oil approximately six inches beneath the surface of Pensacola Beach near Gulf Islands National Seashore on June 24.

Onlookers stare at a huge mass of oil that came ashore on Pensacola Beach on June 23. The water is closed to the public.

NORFOLK - After making a brief stop in Norfolk for refueling, U.S. Coast Guard inspections and an all-out publicity blitz intended to drum up public support, a giant tanker billed as the world's largest oil skimming vessel set sail Friday for the Gulf of Mexico where it hopes to assist in the oil-cleanup effort.

The Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged ship dubbed the "A Whale" stands 10 stories high, stretches 1,115 feet in length and has a nearly 200-foot beam. It displaces more water than an aircraft carrier.

"A Whale", the largest oil skimmer in the world?

Joe Fudge, Daily Press / June 24, 2010

The six opening's(Six on both sides of the vessel, 12 opening's in all) near the bow of the vessel that pulls in the oil"A Whale", is billed as the largest oil skimmer vessel in the world docked at Norfolk International Terminal for today before sailing to the Gulf area this afternoon. The A Whale is 1115 feet long and 196 feet wide and can hold 1 million barrels of recovered oil.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Today it will be two years ago that our family lost our basset hound to animal cruelty .Our dog slipped out of our home and went down to play with some small children when he found himself walking in a neighbors yard only to be gunned down from behind. The man was never charged for animal cruelty even though I fought for over a year to get justice for our dog . He is missed terrible by all that knew and loved him. Babyboy was one of those dogs that everyone loved and he loved everybody.Through his death I have become a person that cares very much for animal rights and I have taken my campaign to the net and I work continually to bring awareness for those that can not speak. Many wonderful things have been done in Babyboys honor.

A song was wrote by Maria Daines from the UK in honor of our dog in 2009

Today we honor his life and we hope you will learn something from our tragic loss this is a video I made for our precious dog .Thank you to everyone that stood behind us as we went through this terrible ordeal.

Thousands of people are fighting for the life of the Gulf. What will it take to clean it up?? No one really knows and its hard to say considering the oil is still flowing from the bottom of the earth.This is a disaster that will take more man power then anything Ive ever seen before in my life and its not getting done. Day after day new oil is showing up down our coast as it comes a shore. These beaches and towns are not fully prepared and we are seeing this through individuals that upload their news reports and photos on facebook and other websites. The ocean is dying and Bp hasn't been able to stop it.
All the miss management and all the control this company has and the states are allowing this to happen by sitting by and waiting for bp to solve all the problems its just sick. I have read the stories over and over again. What are we as a Nation suppose to do??

GULF SHORES, Alabama - Former oil clean-up worker Candi Warren says she signed up to make a difference, but soon found out the work of cleaning the beaches was all cosmetic. That's what she was told, she says.

Warren says she knew that when crews worked during the day, the tide and surf buried oil overnight. But they were forbidden to dig it up. She quit in disgust three weeks ago despite the $18 per hour pay.

She said she was told to only clean the surface of the sand, that this is all cosmetic. She was on a crew at Gulf State Park where tourists go. She says it has priority so as to make it look like the beaches are clean.

Warren says she believes money is being wasted on the crews and says "At some point the real clean-up will have to begin, but I'm afraid the money will be gone."

She used a shovel and dug down six, eight, maybe twelve inches into the sand to show us the layers of oil close to the shoreline.

This is a map showing the devastation as of June 28,2010

This is the sperm whale that was found floating in the Gulf last week. The body will be taken in to determine its death but we all know what the cause is so why do they spend thousands of dollars to figure it out??

Small children play along the edge of the ocean not really knowing what their future holds its so sad to see the ocean dying .

How many times will this story repeat itself?? If only we knew. This baby dolphin died during transport

See the name on side the boat that is the first thing to catch my eye besides the thick oil . To me we all our now in prisoned by the oil and the horror has just begun .

How long could anything or anyone live in these conditions?? America needs help desperately from our Neighbor countries ,We are drowning in oil .

This is a video that I have posted with my hope being that people wake up and realize simply that this is an extinction level event. Wonder why the official number of barrels has been increased since the beginning of this disaster from 1,000 to now 60,000 and there is begging to be word that scientists and oceanologists estimating 120,000 to 240,000 barrels-4.8 Million to 9.6 Million Gallons Per Day. They are not tell us the truth, the whole truth.The relief wells have already been written off as a failure to stop the leak by many analysts, and now the best of all possibilities is the stoppage occurring at Christmas. If God where to give this plant and the human species a gift they would never forget, this is it. Worst case scenarios, according to BP Officials, are that this leaks for 1-2 years, and doomsday scenario of 10+ years.There is a concerted effort to get the people to come together as one people united in a common cause. This is it, and that cause is literally the survival of the human species.This is not a joke, nor an exaggeration. The president is in over his head and absolutely incapable to action. The situation is literally getting worse by the day as additional plumes pop up as the shaft has been compromised, in addition to the shaft enlarging itself due to the debris being shot out at higher pressure. This will only result in more oil escaping.The focus should not be on clean up, nor containment. The focus should be on stopping the bleeding, and the only option that I have read that may do this is nuclear detonation to fuse the shaft shut. This is insanity, but it is actually being discussed.This is why I have asked for mercy on our souls.God Bless & Good Luck

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Paws On My Heart Blog

According to the American Humane Association, nearly 10 million animals are euthanized annually in the United States. That's 833,333 every month- 208,333 every week - 27,778 each day - 1,157 every hour! Or...think of it this way - 19 companion animals are put to sleep every minute of every hour of every day each year!! PLEASE do your part by having your pet spayed or neutered!!